March 24, 2012 - New Way to Quest!

Hey guys!
We have released some screenshots of some new additions we are going to be doing to the Quest guides. These will take some time and start with Newer quests added to older ones. We have no time frame when these will be done, you may see them done in "waves" instead of all at once.

We have shown it off in our Facebook album we just posted: Facebook Album

Currently we have it set up for Old way + New way. We are unsure if we will keep the old way going forward.

We wanted to make it easier to find Walkthrough + Map combos instead of having to do things like remember the color then try to find the map below (in the Case of a quest like Lucky 13 where there are 11 map images to try to find one of the 12 step images and various other "long" quests like this, we coulda done maps in between steps, but this would still be a kind of long mess). We felt we could do a better job of adding these things together and overall making it easier and more efficient to find what you want and with the additions shown, hopefully it will be much easier to Quest and go through our Quest walkthroughs :)

March 20, 2012 - EverQuest Server Downtime

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 2:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 6 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

Update: Patch Notes
March 22, 2012
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*** Highlights ***

- Defiant augments are no longer prestige-flagged.
- Power sources should no longer cause armor to be unusable by Silver or Bronze players.
- Fixed several issues in 13th Anniversary content. Please see the Quests and Events section for details.

*** Items ***

- Corrected an issue with the Polymorph Wand: Lightning Warrior item that could allow people to grow to immense sizes.
- Defiant augments are no longer prestige-flagged.
- Power sources should no longer cause armor to be unusable by Silver or Bronze players.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Corrected a few issues with the Spider's Bite 13th Anniversary quest that could force players to start over or have other issues advancing.
- Fixed a problem in the Summoning the Master task that could cause one of the ritual areas to be unreachable.
- Changed the 13th anniversary raid to allow teleporting to banners that you place in the Tower of Frozen Shadow instance.
- Corrected a problem with the final turn-in for the quest Heads Above the Rest in Blightfire Moors.
- Corrected a problem where Valdoon Kel`Novar was instantly wiping out raid forces. He will now be a bit more judicious in who he targets with his AE lifetaps.
- Corrected an issue with the mission The Sound of Silence that caused players to get stuck when trying to use the Harmonic Disruptor on the active sentry stones.

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Modified the notice that players receive when losing inventory slots. Players will now be referred to a parcel merchant to retrieve their items.
- Mail items in parcels no longer expire.
- Duplicate lore items are no longer destroyed when in a parcel.
- When a player loses access to bag slots, we will now attempt to move the item in the inaccessible bag slots to open bag slots (if they exist). If they do not, then the items will be mailed back to them, however in the case of special no storage items they will be placed in any open inventory slot or on the cursor if there is no other space.
- Removed the ability to redeem head start characters on the Vox server. Players who have already redeemed head start characters on Vox will have those characters moved to a different server of their choice.
- Fixed two separate crashes that could occur when players opened certain merchant windows.

*** UI ***

- Removed the expiration date on parcels in the parcel merchant window because mailed items no longer expire.
- Changed the default behavior for the zone path finder window. "Include Bind Zone" is now off by default.

- Changed -

EQUI_MerchantWnd.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

- Players who fail to zone out of the first section of the tutorial will now be able to attempt to do so again.
- Corrected a problem that was allowing players to request the task A Different Perspective without having completed the other 13 anniversary quests. All players will still be able to join the task once someone with the correct requirements requests it.
- Corrected a problem that was causing Grobb to endlessly repop itself on some servers.
- Corrected an issue that was activating the 13th Anniversary banners and booths on Progression servers when the 13th Anniversary events are not yet available.
- Removed a section of the Guild Lobby that doesn't connect to anything. You will have to re-run your patcher to see this change.
- Corrected an Achievement error that could cause some players to crash when they updated.

- The EverQuest Team

March 16, 2012 - 13th Anniversary Contests!

EQResource wants to help the players celebrate EverQuests 13th birthday! From now through March 31st, 2012, we are running several contests. Players may enter as many of these contests as they wish!

March 16, 2012 - EXP, Rares and Sales Bonus + Patch Notes

To help celebrate EverQuest's 13th birthday, there will be bonus experience, an increased spawn rate on rare mobs and a special 13 themed marketplace sale. These specials ( experience , rare spawns, and sale) will run 3/16/2012 through 3/31/2012.

The items Lucky Mitosing Coin, Salve of the Long Dozen and Pizmip's Prize Purveyor can be found in the marketplace from 3/16/2012 through 3/31/2012. Make sure you log in and purchase these items for just 130 SC before they are gone on April 1, 2012!

The following items are for sale at a different price then the ones listed above:

In celebration of EverQuest's 13th anniversary and transition to Free to Play. Your. Way. We will be offering double Station Cash! Hurry, only valid March 16, 12pm PDT to March 17, 12pm PDT*

*Excludes purchases of Station Cash by SMS
Happy Birthday EverQuest!

Patch Notes:
March 16, 2012
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*** Highlights ***

- Begin the Hero's Journey!
--- All players are now given a Tome of the Hero's Journey which will guide them with suggested tasks to complete along their journey from 1 to 85. Many of these tasks have been revamped and rebalanced.
--- A set of achievements have been added for the Hero's Journey which will grant rewards along the way.

- Added and improved a number of features regarding navigation.
--- Added a zone guide. This window is a quick way look up zones in the game by level, zone connections, and other data about the zone. This is also the starting point for the zone path finder. The zone path finder generates a path between any chosen zone and any other zone in the world.
--- Find tracking is now visible in the map window. You'll be able to see your find wisp in the map window and it will auto center around the path and zoom in and out so you can see the whole path.
--- Maps now support custom map directories. Previously if a map was one of the patched maps it would get overwritten when patching. Now we support sub directories in the maps directory for custom maps. The game will now look for a map in the chosen custom map directory (at the top of the map window) and if it can't find one it will look in the default directory.
--- Added label searching. Now you'll be able to search through all of the labels on the map and select one to mark on the map.
--- Added the ability to right click on any point on the map to attempt to bring up a Find Path wisp to it.
--- Added zone connections to the Find window.

- Revamped the tutorial zone and quests within it. To enter the tutorial, select the "Tutorial" button from the character select screen. Your character must be level ten or below to enter the tutorial.
--- New quests have been created to explain important new features such as Mercenaries and Augmentations.
--- All existing quests have been updated with new information.
--- New rewards have been added to the tutorial quests, which should provide new characters with a much better set of starting armor.

- Created a new set of tutorials for advanced game concepts such as Alternate Achievements and Guildhalls. These tutorials are available at level 50 in the Plane of Knowledge. Seek out Secalna Galnor to begin them.

- It's EverQuest's 13th Anniversary! Seek out Sam Napth in the Plane of Knowledge for more information.

- Most Veil of Alaris rares have had their HP reduced by 10% or more. Many overly-difficult rares have had their damage outputs or mechanics altered.

- There were many changes made to the User Interface. If you are unable to log in to a character using a custom UI, contact your UI maker for an update or rename your custom UI's folder (in \EverQuest\uifiles\) to force the character to load the default UI again.

*** Items ***

- Changed the name of Valthon's Shard to Valthun's Shard. Valthun Woodswatcher was upset that people kept getting his name wrong.
- Housing anchors are no longer restricted to one per plot.

*** Quests & Events ***

- It's EverQuest's 13th Anniversary! Seek out Sam Napth in the Plane of Knowledge for more information.
- The Mechanical Fortune Teller in the Plane of Knowledge can give you directions on where to find previous anniversary quest givers for your level.
- All quest givers for anniversary tasks can now be found via the Find window.
- The elusive Iksar Lieutenants in the Field of Scale now have heralds which can be killed in their place in order to satisfy the requirements of Gorenaire's task "Cutting Off The Arms".
- Corrected a mix-up between the names Tynn and Marthor in Phara Dar's "Evil Afoot" task.
- Corrected a problem that could cause melee characters to be unable to exit certain Lost Dungeons of Norrath adventures.
- Erillion, City of Bronze - The first step of the mission "The Traitor Revealed" should now update properly when entering the prison.
- Venorin in Skylance may now use his intended knockback effect.

*** Spells ***

- Bard - Reduced the focus cap, Triple Attack Chance, and Flurry Chance added by the Arias, Auras, and Echoes of the Composer and the Orator.
- Melee classes - Increased the range of Throw Stone to 70 feet.
- Melee classes - Added an additional ability at level 5 named Elbow Strike. This ability is available in the Plane of Knowledge and anywhere else low-level melee tomes are sold.
- Player pets will no longer ignore their target's immunities when casting or proccing spells.
- The scholars of the Library of Myrist in the Plane of Knowledge have expanded their inventories. They now carry most spells, tomes, or songs that an adventurer will need. They do not carry ancient spells or advanced spell ranks.

*** NPC ***

- Most Veil of Alaris rares have had their HP reduced by 10% or more. Many overly-difficult rares have had their damage outputs or mechanics altered.
- Killing the helpless citizens in Argath will be less rewarding than it was before.
- The scholars of the Library of Myrist in the Plane of Knowledge have expanded their inventories. They now carry most spells, tomes, or songs that an adventurer will need. They do not carry ancient spells or advanced spell ranks.
- Merchants will now "Show Only Items That I Can Use" by default. Also spells that the character already has scribed and lower rank spells of the same spell group are now filtered out with the "Show Only Items That I Can Use" option.

*** AA ***

- Cleric - Corrected an issue with Battle Frenzy that was causing some damage spells to fail to crit.
- Enchanter - Unlinked the timers for Glyph Spray and Divine Companion Aura.
- Necromancer - Perfected Dead Man Floating will no longer conflict with the Mass Group Buff timer.
- Ranger - Corrected a problem that linked the Spirit of Eagle and Volatile Arrow abilities.
- Shaman - Restored the DoT proc on Languid Bite ranks 7-9.
- Shadowknight - Thought Leech has been changed to share a timer with Leech Touch instead of Harm Touch.
- Shadowknight - Explosion of Hatred should no longer affect the caster.
- Warrior - Warlord's Tenacity should no longer conflict with Druid HP buffs such as Stonebark Skin.
- Cleric, Druid, and Shaman - Corrected the Copious Healing effect of Abundant Healing ranks 21-25.
- Druid and Shaman - Silent Casting should no longer interfere with Paralytic Spores.
- Fixed many AA descriptions that were out of date.
- The next Veteran's Reward has been created. Blessing of the Devoted, which reduces the reuse time of all other Veteran's Rewards by 25 percent, will be available to players as it is earned.
- A new AA ability in the special tab called "Summon Tome of the Hero's Journey" has been created. This ability will allow you to summon a book that offers information on what quests you might want to work on.

*** Achievements ***

- A new category of Achievements has been created called the Hero's Journey. Many existing quests have had achievements added to them in this category.
- Created a set of Achievements to help you track your progress through the new advanced tutorials given in and around the Plane of Knowledge.
- Added a set of Achievements to track progress through our Anniversary quests and events.

*** Mercenaries ***

- The initial price to hire a mercenary has been significantly reduced.
- Improved the AI for healer mercenaries. In certain cases, they will now heal you even if you have heal over time spells or deferred heals on you.

*** Progression Servers ***

- Speaking to a Priest of Discord should now correctly allow you to change your vote when there is an active poll for expansion unlocks.
- Due to the recent unlock of Lost Dungeons of Norrath on Fippy Darkpaw, we have increased the experience modifier on both servers so that it will match standard servers.

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Right-clicking on an item that you cannot use now gives the specific reason why you cannot use the item (whether it be level, race, class, deity, or membership level).
- Changed the default memory management mode to Balanced and removed original memory mode. This should prevent many of the crashes that were occurring in large zones.
- Increased the targeting range on PCs through /target from 70 to 200.
- Many in-game help files have been updated with new information. Even veteran players will probably find something new in the command lists.
- Weapons will no longer go through the head of female Vah Shir and Barbarians when previewing them in the preview window.
- Players that are zoning when their raid expedition is acquired will now receive credit for completing the raid where appropriate.

*** UI ***

- There were many changes made to the User Interface. If you are unable to log in to a character using a custom UI, contact your UI maker for an update or rename your custom UI's folder (in \EverQuest\uifiles\) to force the character to load the default UI again.
- Fixed a bug where all two-handed weapons, shields, and augments would have a green name when the equipping player was below the required level, while one-handers and armor had red names. They now all have red names when they are not usable.
- Added the ability to buy additional character slots and other account-based features from character select.
- Merchants will now "Show Only Items That I Can Use" by default. Also spells that the character already has scribed and lower rank spells of the same spell group are now filtered out with "Show Only Items...".
- The alarm window is no longer a pop-up. It is now accessible from the EQ menu button (EQ -> Actions -> Alarm) or the /alarm command.
- Added a new set of loading screens which feature helpful tips and concept art.
- Added an option to map the "Toggle Bank Bags" feature to a key on your keyboard.
- Added a new window for Alerts and an Alert History window to show any that you have viewed previously. The history window is accessible from the EQ button.
- Altered the EQ main window (the cascading popup window that opens when you click the EQ button) so that shortcut key combinations appear next to the item commands in the window.
- Updated the "Create Character" button on the Character Creation screen to read "Enter World" instead. The functionality of this button remains the same.
- Converted all of the buttons that were individually declaring the exact "A_BtnNormal" style to use the common "BDT_Normal" template.
- Converted all of the buttons that were individually declaring the exact "A_SmallBtnNormal" style to use the common "BDT_SmallNormal" template.
- Converted all of the buttons that were individually declaring the exact "A_SquareBtnNormal" style to use the common "BDT_Square" template.
- Converted all of the buttons that were individually declaring the exact "A_BigBtnNormal" style to use the common "BDT_BigNormal" template.
- Converted all of the arrow buttons to use the common template.
- Converted all checkboxes where appropriate.
- Added a new template type for buttons that display a color in them such as the tint window, and converted all references to use this style.
- Added new template types for buttons that display coin with a recessed button around them such as the inventory display of money, and converted all references to use this style.
- Added a new template type for buttons that display items in them such as the container window, and converted all references to use this style.
- Removed the Voice Chat Notification window.
- The Welcome Screen will no longer open automatically when zoning into the first tutorial instance.
- Made it so that the newbie character no longer shows when the player is at the character select screen and has no characters.
- Changed the Journal button in the Window Selector window to open the Quest Journal window when clicked.
- Greatly increased the 'highlight' area around label points on the map and changed the highlight code so that only the nearest label point will highlight rather than all that fall within the range.
- Added the ability to change the color of the player on the map window from black. The ini for it (MyColor) is found in the [MapViewWnd] section of your character's ini file and defaults to blue. Additionally, the ability to change the group color, the local player color, and the find path color is now available through the Map Toolbar window. Added new buttons in this window to allow easy modification of each of the color options.
- Modified the map window highlight functionality while the toolbar is active so that either a line or a label will be highlighted but not both. This should make modifying the map easier since it'll be easier to highlight the one thing that is intended to be modified.
- Marked labels no longer show in the map window when the toolbar is not active (this mimics the functionality of marked lines). Fixed a bug where marked labels were not highlighted while the toolbar was active.
- Increased the number of buy lines in the Barter Buyer Window from 50 to 200.

March 15, 2012 - EQ Patch

On Thursday, March 15, 2012, at 12:01 AM PDT* (midnight) the EverQuest servers will be taken offline in preparation for the launch of EverQuest Free to Play. Your Way. Downtime is expected to last until Friday, March 16, 2012, at 12:01 AM PDT (midnight).

This year we are combining the Anniversary update with EverQuest going free-to-play, so the servers will be down for a full 24 hours. More information about the 13th Anniversary will be posted later this week.

March 10, 2012 - EQ Anniversary Contests

EverQuests anniversary is coming up, and we at EQResource have secured some great prizes for you guys! We will be running several contests. We want to hear from you guys what type of
contests you would enjoy! We will be accepting suggestions through Monday, March 12. If we use your idea, we will give you a special shoutout right here on our homepage!
Be sure to Contact Us with ideas for contests that you would enjoy!

March 6, 2012 - 16 Hour Game Downtime

Maintenance Notice: Monday, March 5, 2012

Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 11:00 PM Pacific* on March 5, 2012. Login for all games will be unavailable starting at 11:00 PM on March 5, 2012, to approximately 5:00 AM Pacific* on March 6, 2012. There will be extended downtime for account management and commerce transactions, and the forums will be read only, until approximately 7:00 AM Pacific* on March 6, 2012.

EverQuest will also have server maintenance during this downtime. Povar and Antonius Bayle will be taken down at 03:00 AM. Once the login maintenance is complete, Antonius Bayle and Povar will be open for play. Players that log into the Test server before the maintenance starts should not be impacted.

All of the other EverQuest servers will be taken offline at 12:00 AM Pacific* on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. The estimated downtime for this maintenance is 12:00 AM to approximately 04:00 PM Pacific* on March 6, 2012. If the maintenance is completed early the servers may be opened up before the estimated time.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.